Day 1 - San Gimignano to Colle Val d'Elsa

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/4 litre
Actual Distance Walked: 17.4km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 40m
Planned Distance: 13.5km, Planned Time: 4h 30m

I set off in good spirits, all dressed up in my proper hiking gear - dorky hat with dorky map case hanging around my neck, all exposed flesh liberally slathered with sunblock.  It was stinking hot but I made good time up until I meet up with an English couple in their 50s.  They'd done this walk with ATG about 10 years back and were doing it again by themselves, attempting to follow their old ATG route notes.  We combined forces and with the aid of my new route notes, their old route notes and his innate, masculine sense of direction it wasn't long before we got thoroughly lost.

We eventually came to a village that wasn't on either of our maps.  The wife insisted they stop at a small cafe/pizzeria.  I'd already eaten my lunch (a bread roll with good salami and stinky cheese that I'd bought in San Gimignano) so I took the opportunity to ditch them.  I back tracked to the last point where I know we were on the right path and then navigated from there using just my route notes and my compass to find north.  I managed to stay on track after that and got to my hotel here in Colle only 1 hour later and 4km longer than planned.

I adore this hotel.  It is the most upmarket on one the entire route - 4 stars.  When I staggered all sweating and dripping into their pristine marble lobby I was greeted with a friendly smile.  I used my best Italian (not as dire as it was but still pretty poor) to say I had a reservation.   At one point the woman on the desk lapsed into English but then apologised and returned to Italian.  She clearly though I wanted to practice - or at least thought (correctly) that I definitely needed to!  But best of all, and what makes me love her forever, was she gave me free access to the hotel spa.

This is in the basement and put me in mind of a modern set of Roman baths.  I'm not sure what everything did at the spa because the woman on the desk there didn't speak any English and none of my Italian courses cover the the esoterica of spa treatments.  However, there was sauna, Turkish bath and warm heated pool.  There were also about half a dozen special showers with a variety of nozzles that did stuff.  The pool also had several buttons around the sides that, when pressed, turned on various different sorts of jets for a set period with did other stuff.  I tried everything.

After getting thoroughly prune-like I went back to my room, showered again to get rid of the chlorine and dressed.  I think in one afternoon I managed to have more showers and use more water than I would in a week at home.  It felt very decadent to be so profligate with water.

The town here is in two parts - the older, Alto, part perched on the top of a ridge and is all of three (medieval) streets wide.  The new(er), Basso, part is at the foot of the hill.  After wandering around the old town (took 15 minutes) I went down to the new town.  There is a free public lift that goes down a shaft drilled through the peak of the outcrop the old town is perched on.  The bottom of the lift is in a cave at the base and there is a 50m tunnel to outside.  I can image it is rather creepy to use on your own at night but felt lovely and cool to me.

Once in the new town, I only went as far as the main square and then settled myself in a cafe to watch the world go by as it was now about 6pm - prime passeggiata time.  There were clearly demarcated clientele for each cafe.  One was for the old men of the town and another for the bright young things.  I settled on one that was willing to cater to tourists.  I had a divine pistachio and strawberry gelati before settling back with a campari & soda.  My first for this trip.  I'm slipping.

Once my muscles had thoroughly locked up, I levered myself to my feet and tottered back to my hotel.  I had decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant.  It wasn't one of the ones recommended in my guide book but as it required the least possible number of steps to reach it, that was recommendation enough for me. I met up with the English couple again at the restaurant and we dined together which was a mistake again.  They were very nice people and it was pleasant to chat to them but it meant I only had 3 courses when I'd planned on having all 4.  This was a real shame as it turned out that the hotel food was delicious.

It was a very upmarket restaurant in keeping with the rest of the hotel vibe - think big white plates with artfully presented food.  However, the food was full of flavour as it a requirement here.  My antipasto was a zucchini and parmesan timbale with bechamel sauce, which came with a surprise side of prosciutto.  I think it doesn't count as a meal here unless you have some pork products in it.  I was then planning on having gnocchi with fresh porcini but the couple didn't want a pasta course (philistines!).  I then had wild boar stew with roast potatoes.  We washed this all down with a randomly chosen chianti classico as none of us knew what was a good winery and what was not.  I finished up with a strawberry mouse with mint and basil.  This was the only disappointment as it was a frozen mousse and hadn't been allowed to melt enough before serving so the tastes were a bit muted.

After all this I took my leave of the couple with the firm decision not to walk with them on the morrow.  I think they felt the same way as the husband kept flipping through my route notes and saying their path was different even though we are headed for the same destination.  I'm going to have to make sure I leave before them so I can be confident of not running into them again.